Enhanced organic dye removal of the W and N co-doped NaTaO3 under visible light irradiation

We carried out both the experimental and theoretical investigations on the synthesis and photocatalytic performance of the visible-light responded, W and N co-doped NaTaO3 powders. The nanocubic NaTa(1-x)WxO(3-x)N(x) (x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.1) particles with a range of 100-200 nm in size have been successfully synthesized at 700 degrees C via the NaOH flux reaction method. The microstructure, chemical composition and optical absorption of the as-prepared photocatalysts were discussed in detail. The photocatalytic performance of as-prepared powders was evaluated by decolarization of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation with the wavelengths longer than 400 nm. The optical band gap of NaTaO3 could be significantly reduced through the co-doping of W and N. The degradation efficiency of RhB over the NaTaO3 with co-doping of W and N in the charge-compensated mode was remarkably improved. Furthermore, the first-principle calculations were also performed to discover the effects of co-doping of W and N on the electronic structure of NaTaO3. These present results provide a simple and feasible route to design new photocatalysts based on NaTaO3 or other oxide photocatalysts. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.